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| (ruled 1515-1547) In France, under this king, the Valois monarchy effectively extended its authority. Even though he ruled with an authority unequal to Europe, he was still dependent on the good will of nobles. When he sought loans to continue a war, a Parisian noble assured him that his power would not be disputed and that they know he is above the law. He and his successors became more insistent on their authority to assess taxes on the towns of the kingdom in times of war. He also reduced the authority of the Catholic Church in France through the Concordat of Bologna. | ||
| (1516) It was signed between Francis and Pope Leo, despite the resistance of the French clergy. It established royal control over ecclesiastical appointments. Many more royal officials represented and enforced the royal will in the provinces than ever before. | ||
| Signed by Henry II due to the spread of Calvinism, it ended the protracted struggle between France and Spain. After decades of reckless invasions, he agreed to respect Hapsburg dominance in Italy and control over Flanders. King Philip II of Spain, in return, promised that Spain would cease its attempts to weaken the Valois kings. These two most powerful kings in Europe ended their struggle for supremacy not only because their resources were nearly exhausted but also because as pious Catholic rulers they viewed with alarm the spread of Calvinism in Western Europe. After signing it, the two kings could focus on combating Protestantism. | ||
| (ruled 1556-59) As king of France, he succeeded his father, Francis I, and began a religious repression that created Calvinist martyrs, perhaps further encouraging Protestant dissent. The spread of Calvinism led him to sign the Treaty of Canteau-Cambresis in 1559. After decades of reckless invasions, he agreed to respect Hapsburg dominance in Italy and control over Flanders. In 1559, he was accidentally killed by an errant lance during a jousting tournament celebrating peace with Spain, and so his son, Francis II, succeeded him. | ||
| (1519-1589) She was Henry's talented, manipulative, and domineering widow, who served as regent to the first of her three sickly and incapable sons. She was loathed as a "shopkeeper's daughter," as her Florentine ancestors had been merchants, bankers, and money changers, all things incompatible with the French concept of nobility, even though it fit the Italian concept. That she was the daughter of the man to whom Machiavelli had dedicated The Prince added to the "legend of the wicked Italian queen" in France. She was Catholic. Margaret, a Catholic Valois, was her daughter. | ||
| This noble, Catholic family dominated large parts of France and challenged the authority of the French throne. As the strongest family, it concentrated its influence in northern and eastern France. | ||
| The title given to French Calivinist Protestants. NOT named after the members of the Huguenot Bourbon Family, which had power extended into central France and the far southwest corner, Louis, Prince of Conde and a member of the family, conspired to kidnap Francis II and removed him from the clutches of the Guise clan, who were related to Francis's' wife, but the Guise clan found out about this and killed the Bourbon conspirators. The political crisis of France became increasingly tied to the struggle of the Church with the Huguenots. The first stage of war, during which they assassinated Francis II, duke of Guise, ended in 1563. A royal edict granted Huguenots the right to worship in one designated town in each region, as well as in places where Calvinist congregations had already been established. Were they Protestant? Were they a family or Protestant group? | ||
| (ruled 1559-1560) He was the son of Henry II and inherited the throne when he was 15 after his father died. He was planned to be kidnapped from the Guise clan. His wife was Mary Stewart, queen of Scotland. Religious war in France broke out when he, as duke of Guise (1519-1563), ordered the execution of Huguenots who had been found worshipping on his land. He died after a stormy reign of only eighteen months, succeeded by his ten-year-old Charles IX. | ||
| (ruled 1560-1574) He succeeded his father, Francis II, at the age of 10. He and his two brothers didn't were childless so there was no clear heir to the French throne which created more tension between the quarreling noble families in France. He was Catholic. | ||
| When Henry of Navarre and Charles's sister, Margaret, a Catholic Valois, decided to get married for religious reconciliation, the wedding was to be in Paris and the Huguenots had to arrive at the wedding unarmed. But the king's Guise advisers, and perhaps his mother as well, convinced him that the only way of preventing a Protestant uprising against the throne was to strike brutally against the Huguenots in Paris. Therefore, early in the morning on August 24, 1572, Catholic assassins hunted down and murdered Huguenot leaders. During what became St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, the new duke of Guise killed Admiral Coligny. For six days, Catholic mobs stormed through the streets, killing more than 2,000 Protestants. Another 10,000 Protestants died outside of Paris. | ||
| (1553-1610) He was born in the town of Pau on the edge of the Pyrenees Mountains in southwestern France. He was the son of Antoine of Bourbon, patriarch of the powerful Bourbon family, and Jeanne d'Albret. He was raised as a Huguenot by his mother, but when his father sent her away, he became Catholic, but switched back to Protestanism after his father's death in battle. He was a Bourbon Huguenot and had married Charles's sister, Margaret, a Catholic Valois, for religious reconciliation. Their marriage day, however, turned into the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. The death of the last of the king's brothers in 1584 made Henry of Navarre, a Protestant, heir to the throne. This was the Catholics' worse nightmare. When he was given the choice of embracing Catholicism or being executed, he chose the former. The Catholic League pushed for Cardinal de Bourbon to be heir to the throne instead of Henry of Navarre. | ||
| (1519-1572) He was a Protestant leader and a member of the Montmorency family. He was blamed for the murder of Francis II, the Catholic Duke of Guise. The Guise family failed to assassinate him. | ||
| (ruled 1574-1589) He succeeded his brother, Charles IX, who died in 1574. At his coronation, the crown twice slipped from his head, which was a bad omen in a superstitious age. He was a picture of contradictions. He seemed pious, undertook pilgrimages, and hoped to bring about a revival of faith in his kingdom. He also spent lots of money and dressed up as a women, while gaining the attention of young men around him. He had to confront the religious factionalism intensified by the massacre and the fiscal crisis created by a series of meager harvests. When he asked the provincial estates for more taxes, he found that it still wasn't enough. In 1576, Henry signed an agreement that liberalized the conditions under which Protestants could practice their religion. These concessions, however, only further infuriated the Catholics. | ||
| It was a group of moderate Catholics, apart from the Catholic forces around the king, that had pushed for conciliation. Tired of anarchy and bloodshed, they were ready to put politics above religion. Therefore, they sought to win the support of the Huguenots, and thereby to bring religious toleration and peace to France. | ||
| (1550-1588) He led the Catholic League. Subsidized by Philip II of Spain, he vowed to fight until Protestantism was completely driven from France. He wanted to be the heir to the throne instead of Henry of Navarre or Cardinal de Bourbon. He was assassinated by his own bodyguards shortly before Christmas 1588 planned by the Valois king. | ||
| It was when Henry (Valois) III first allied with Henry (Bourbon) of Navarre and with the duke of Montmorency to go against Henry, duke of Guise. The Guise family provocatively accused the king in 1585 of destroying the kingdom through inept rule and called for a rebellion that would bring the duke of Guise to the throne and drive Protestantism from the kingdom. Henry III then switched partners, joining the duke of Guise against Henry of Navarre. Once Catherine de Medici and Henry, duke of Guise, abolished all edicts of religious tolerance and turned over a number of towns to the Catholic League, Henry of Navarre prepared for a new war. He denounced Spanish meddling and called on soldiers to rally around him without regard to religion. Although he depended on German and Swiss mercenaries, his denunciation of foreign influence was a shrew piece of political propaganda aimed at moderate Catholics and the Catholic clergy. The Catholic League replied with a warning that French Catholics would suffer the fate of English Catholics (who had been executed) should Henry win. In 1587, Henry of Navarre defeated the combined forces of the king and the Catholic League at Coutras, near Bordeaux. In 1587, when the niece of Henry, the Duke of Guise, was murdered, he was angered by Henry III's inability to prevent the death of his niece, so, urged by the king of Spain, he marched on Paris the next year, where he and the Catholic League enjoyed great support. When Henry III sent troops to Paris to oppose the duke of Guise, the Parisian population rose in rebellion on May 12, 1588, stretching barricades throughout the city center. This became known as the "Day of Barricades" marking the victory of a council led by clergymen known as the Seize, or Sixteen, then the number neighborhoods of in Paris. For several years, the Sixteen had been supporting the League, while denouncing the king, the Catholic politiques, and Huguenots with equal fervor. Then, the king was convinced to make Cardinal de Bourbon his heir with the duke of Guise as his Lieutenant General. | ||
| It was brought on by the concessions given by Henry III to Protestants. Led by Henry, Duke of Guise, it was organized by a nobleman in the northern province of Picardy and was more extensive than smaller local anti-Protestant organizations that had sprung up in the 1560s. Despite an insincere oath of loyalty taken to the king, it posed a threat not only to Huguenots but also to the monarchy. Henry, duke of Guise, who was subsidized by Philip II of Spain, vowed to fight until Protestantism was completely driven from France. | ||
| Henry of Navarre, who surprisingly renounced Protestantism in 1593, was coroneted as Henry IV at Chartres. The following year, Paris surrendered after very little fighting. He had many ceremonies when he entered his capital. The Catholic League forces gradually dispersed as one town after another pledged its loyalty to Henry. Henry's declaration of war on Spain in 1595 helped rally people to the monarchy. The pope even lifted his excommunication he had gotten in 1585 as Henry of Navarre. He invaded Philip's territory of Burgundy, defeating his army. Henry, having secured the frontiers of his kingdom, signed the Treaty of Vervins with Philip II to end the war that neither side could afford to continue.` | ||
| (ruled 1515-1547) In France, under this king, the Valois monarchy effectively extended its authority. Even though he ruled with an authority unequal to Europe, he was still dependent on the good will of nobles. When he sought loans to continue a war, a Parisian noble assured him that his power would not be disputed and that they know he is above the law. He and his successors became more insistent on their authority to assess taxes on the towns of the kingdom in times of war. He also reduced the authority of the Catholic Church in France through the Concordat of Bologna. | ||
| (1516) It was signed between Francis and Pope Leo, despite the resistance of the French clergy. It established royal control over ecclesiastical appointments. Many more royal officials represented and enforced the royal will in the provinces than ever before. | ||
| Signed by Henry II due to the spread of Calvinism, it ended the protracted struggle between France and Spain. After decades of reckless invasions, he agreed to respect Hapsburg dominance in Italy and control over Flanders. King Philip II of Spain, in return, promised that Spain would cease its attempts to weaken the Valois kings. These two most powerful kings in Europe ended their struggle for supremacy not only because their resources were nearly exhausted but also because as pious Catholic rulers they viewed with alarm the spread of Calvinism in Western Europe. After signing it, the two kings could focus on combating Protestantism. | ||
| (ruled 1556-59) As king of France, he succeeded his father, Francis I, and began a religious repression that created Calvinist martyrs, perhaps further encouraging Protestant dissent. The spread of Calvinism led him to sign the Treaty of Canteau-Cambresis in 1559. After decades of reckless invasions, he agreed to respect Hapsburg dominance in Italy and control over Flanders. In 1559, he was accidentally killed by an errant lance during a jousting tournament celebrating peace with Spain, and so his son, Francis II, succeeded him. | ||
| (1519-1589) She was Henry's talented, manipulative, and domineering widow, who served as regent to the first of her three sickly and incapable sons. She was loathed as a "shopkeeper's daughter," as her Florentine ancestors had been merchants, bankers, and money changers, all things incompatible with the French concept of nobility, even though it fit the Italian concept. That she was the daughter of the man to whom Machiavelli had dedicated The Prince added to the "legend of the wicked Italian queen" in France. She was Catholic. Margaret, a Catholic Valois, was her daughter. | ||
| This noble, Catholic family dominated large parts of France and challenged the authority of the French throne. As the strongest family, it concentrated its influence in northern and eastern France. | ||
| The title given to French Calivinist Protestants. NOT named after the members of the Huguenot Bourbon Family, which had power extended into central France and the far southwest corner, Louis, Prince of Conde and a member of the family, conspired to kidnap Francis II and removed him from the clutches of the Guise clan, who were related to Francis's' wife, but the Guise clan found out about this and killed the Bourbon conspirators. The political crisis of France became increasingly tied to the struggle of the Church with the Huguenots. The first stage of war, during which they assassinated Francis II, duke of Guise, ended in 1563. A royal edict granted Huguenots the right to worship in one designated town in each region, as well as in places where Calvinist congregations had already been established. Were they Protestant? Were they a family or Protestant group? | ||
| (ruled 1559-1560) He was the son of Henry II and inherited the throne when he was 15 after his father died. He was planned to be kidnapped from the Guise clan. His wife was Mary Stewart, queen of Scotland. Religious war in France broke out when he, as duke of Guise (1519-1563), ordered the execution of Huguenots who had been found worshipping on his land. He died after a stormy reign of only eighteen months, succeeded by his ten-year-old Charles IX. | ||
| (ruled 1560-1574) He succeeded his father, Francis II, at the age of 10. He and his two brothers didn't were childless so there was no clear heir to the French throne which created more tension between the quarreling noble families in France. He was Catholic. | ||
| When Henry of Navarre and Charles's sister, Margaret, a Catholic Valois, decided to get married for religious reconciliation, the wedding was to be in Paris and the Huguenots had to arrive at the wedding unarmed. But the king's Guise advisers, and perhaps his mother as well, convinced him that the only way of preventing a Protestant uprising against the throne was to strike brutally against the Huguenots in Paris. Therefore, early in the morning on August 24, 1572, Catholic assassins hunted down and murdered Huguenot leaders. During what became St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, the new duke of Guise killed Admiral Coligny. For six days, Catholic mobs stormed through the streets, killing more than 2,000 Protestants. Another 10,000 Protestants died outside of Paris. | ||
| (1553-1610) He was born in the town of Pau on the edge of the Pyrenees Mountains in southwestern France. He was the son of Antoine of Bourbon, patriarch of the powerful Bourbon family, and Jeanne d'Albret. He was raised as a Huguenot by his mother, but when his father sent her away, he became Catholic, but switched back to Protestanism after his father's death in battle. He was a Bourbon Huguenot and had married Charles's sister, Margaret, a Catholic Valois, for religious reconciliation. Their marriage day, however, turned into the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. The death of the last of the king's brothers in 1584 made Henry of Navarre, a Protestant, heir to the throne. This was the Catholics' worse nightmare. When he was given the choice of embracing Catholicism or being executed, he chose the former. The Catholic League pushed for Cardinal de Bourbon to be heir to the throne instead of Henry of Navarre. | ||
| (1519-1572) He was a Protestant leader and a member of the Montmorency family. He was blamed for the murder of Francis II, the Catholic Duke of Guise. The Guise family failed to assassinate him. | ||
| (ruled 1574-1589) He succeeded his brother, Charles IX, who died in 1574. At his coronation, the crown twice slipped from his head, which was a bad omen in a superstitious age. He was a picture of contradictions. He seemed pious, undertook pilgrimages, and hoped to bring about a revival of faith in his kingdom. He also spent lots of money and dressed up as a women, while gaining the attention of young men around him. He had to confront the religious factionalism intensified by the massacre and the fiscal crisis created by a series of meager harvests. When he asked the provincial estates for more taxes, he found that it still wasn't enough. In 1576, Henry signed an agreement that liberalized the conditions under which Protestants could practice their religion. These concessions, however, only further infuriated the Catholics. | ||
| It was a group of moderate Catholics, apart from the Catholic forces around the king, that had pushed for conciliation. Tired of anarchy and bloodshed, they were ready to put politics above religion. Therefore, they sought to win the support of the Huguenots, and thereby to bring religious toleration and peace to France. | ||
| (1550-1588) He led the Catholic League. Subsidized by Philip II of Spain, he vowed to fight until Protestantism was completely driven from France. He wanted to be the heir to the throne instead of Henry of Navarre or Cardinal de Bourbon. He was assassinated by his own bodyguards shortly before Christmas 1588 planned by the Valois king. | ||
| It was when Henry (Valois) III first allied with Henry (Bourbon) of Navarre and with the duke of Montmorency to go against Henry, duke of Guise. The Guise family provocatively accused the king in 1585 of destroying the kingdom through inept rule and called for a rebellion that would bring the duke of Guise to the throne and drive Protestantism from the kingdom. Henry III then switched partners, joining the duke of Guise against Henry of Navarre. Once Catherine de Medici and Henry, duke of Guise, abolished all edicts of religious tolerance and turned over a number of towns to the Catholic League, Henry of Navarre prepared for a new war. He denounced Spanish meddling and called on soldiers to rally around him without regard to religion. Although he depended on German and Swiss mercenaries, his denunciation of foreign influence was a shrew piece of political propaganda aimed at moderate Catholics and the Catholic clergy. The Catholic League replied with a warning that French Catholics would suffer the fate of English Catholics (who had been executed) should Henry win. In 1587, Henry of Navarre defeated the combined forces of the king and the Catholic League at Coutras, near Bordeaux. In 1587, when the niece of Henry, the Duke of Guise, was murdered, he was angered by Henry III's inability to prevent the death of his niece, so, urged by the king of Spain, he marched on Paris the next year, where he and the Catholic League enjoyed great support. When Henry III sent troops to Paris to oppose the duke of Guise, the Parisian population rose in rebellion on May 12, 1588, stretching barricades throughout the city center. This became known as the "Day of Barricades" marking the victory of a council led by clergymen known as the Seize, or Sixteen, then the number neighborhoods of in Paris. For several years, the Sixteen had been supporting the League, while denouncing the king, the Catholic politiques, and Huguenots with equal fervor. Then, the king was convinced to make Cardinal de Bourbon his heir with the duke of Guise as his Lieutenant General. | ||
| It was brought on by the concessions given by Henry III to Protestants. Led by Henry, Duke of Guise, it was organized by a nobleman in the northern province of Picardy and was more extensive than smaller local anti-Protestant organizations that had sprung up in the 1560s. Despite an insincere oath of loyalty taken to the king, it posed a threat not only to Huguenots but also to the monarchy. Henry, duke of Guise, who was subsidized by Philip II of Spain, vowed to fight until Protestantism was completely driven from France. | ||
| Henry of Navarre, who surprisingly renounced Protestantism in 1593, was coroneted as Henry IV at Chartres. The following year, Paris surrendered after very little fighting. He had many ceremonies when he entered his capital. The Catholic League forces gradually dispersed as one town after another pledged its loyalty to Henry. Henry's declaration of war on Spain in 1595 helped rally people to the monarchy. The pope even lifted his excommunication he had gotten in 1585 as Henry of Navarre. He invaded Philip's territory of Burgundy, defeating his army. Henry, having secured the frontiers of his kingdom, signed the Treaty of Vervins with Philip II to end the war that neither side could afford to continue. | ||
| It made Catholicism the official religion of France. It also granted France's 2 million Protestants, out of a population of 18.5 million in France, the right to worship at home, to hold religious services and establish schools in specified towns (almost all in the west and southwest) and to maintain a number of fortified towns. It also established chambers in the provincial parlements, or law courts dominated by nobles, to judge the cases of Protestants. | ||
| (1573-1642) Henry IV arranged to marry this woman, a distant relative of Catherine de Medici, after he got an annulment for his marriage with Margaret of Valois, whom he did not see for eighteen years. This second marriage of convenience brought a sizable dowry that Henry used, in part, to pay off more international debts. She had to deal with Henry's infidelities from which Henry produced six illegitimate children by three mistresses, along with the three born to the queen. | ||
| (1560-1641) Also known as Maximilien de Bethune, this person is credited with much of Henry's success in achieving the political reconstruction of France, but he was an arrogant minister of finance. He was the son of a prosperous Protestant family whose great wealth had earned ennoblement. His influence, deeply resented by many nobles, was such that he was the only male admitted to the king's bedchamber, where he received the day's instructions. He established budgets and systematic bookkeeping, which helped him eliminate some needless expenses. | ||
| The nobles reaffirmed their own economic and social domination over their provinces. In 1609, Charles Loyseau, a lawyer, published a Treatise on Orders and Plain Dignities that portrayed French society as a hierarchy of orders, also known as this term: the clergy, the nobility, and everyone else. He portrayed the king as the guarantor of this organic society. | ||
| The oldest and most powerful nobles traditionally called on by the monarchy to provide military support. | ||
| While not a coherent or self-conscious group, they were men who claimed noble status on the basis of high administrative and judicial office. | ||
| He founded the colony of Quebec in 1608. This settlement became a base for further explorations by himself and those who followed him. | ||
| He was a monk that killed Henry IV when he was stuck in traffic. He killed Henry for protecting the Protestants. | ||
| (ruled 1610-1643) He was son of Henry IV who was eight years old when his father died. Marie de Medici, Henry IV's widow, stood as regent for Henry IV's son. He married an Austrian princess whom for siz months, didn't even share a meal with, but after suffering several miscarriages, the queen produced an heir in 1638, but the couple was otherwise unhappy. He was intelligent, but not interested in ideas, though he preferred sketching and music. He also liked hunting and chess. He was pious, but savage and cruel to his enemies. | ||
| (1585-1642) During Louis XIII's reign, he expanded the administrative authority and fiscal reach of the crown, dramatically increasing tax revenues. His family, solidly entrenched in the west of France, had long served the monarchy in court, army, and church. Ordained bishop of Lucon, near the Protestant stronghold of La Rochelle, the gaunt, he staked his future on and won the patronage of the queen mother. He perfected the art of political survival during the court struggles of the next few years. He was a realist. His foreign and domestic policies reflected his politique approach to both. He enforced obedience to the king and divided France into 32 districts, organizing and extending the king's authority. | ||
| In 1628, Richelieu forced the surrender of insurgent Protestant forces at this place. | ||
| His reign led to the peak in Spanish power. He chose Madrid as his capital. | ||
| Phillip II built this palace outside of Madrid during 1563-1584. It was his permanent royal residence. | ||
| It secured Habsburg domination in Italy with France for Philip. | ||
| This battle is when a Spanish-Austrian naval fleet defeated the sultan's larger navy in the Adriatic Sea . | ||
| (1507-1582) In 1567, Philip II appointed this arrogant person to restore order in the north with 10,000 Spanish troops. This ruthless Castilian executed prominent Calvinist nobles on the central square of Brussels, established military courts, imposed heavy new taxes, and virtually destroyed self-government in the Netherlands. But his reign of terror as governor also helped transform the resistance of Dutch nobles and officials, led by William of Orange, into a national revolt. His Council of Troubles, known to the Dutch as the "Council of Blood," executed thousands of people from 1567 to 1573, leading a Catholic bishop to claim that in six years, this person had hurt the Church more than Luther and Calvin combined. | ||
| Alba's Council of Troubles, known to the Dutch as the "Council of Blood," executed thousands of people from 1567 to 1573, leading a Catholic bishop to claim that in six years, this person had hurt the Church more than Luther and Calvin combined. | ||
| He led the resistance of the Dutch nobles and officials into a national revolt. | ||
| In 1579, the Dutch provinces formed this alliance, and two years later they declared their independence from Spain as the Dutch United Provinces. | ||
| Spanish routes for troops, supplies, and bullion to the Netherlands had to be maintained, but since allegiances and the fortunes of war eliminated first the Palatinate and then Alsace and Lorraine as routes through which armies could pass, the Spanish forged this route as a military corridor. It began in Genoa, went overland across the Alps, and then passed through Lombardy and Piedmont, Geneva, Franche-Comte, Lorraine, and finally, the Duchy of Liege, with Spanish agents assuring supplies along the way. | ||
| This term describes the ships fighting under William of Orange, then harassed by Spanish ships. | ||
| It was a truce between the Spanish and the Dutch, signed in 1609, ended in 1621. | ||
| This fleet of ships fighting for Spain had traveled to the English Channel on July 30, 1588, with 130 ships and 30,000 men. On the noght of August 7, the English fleet attacked King Philip II's ships in battles along the English coast. After the Spanish ships anchored near Calais, the English sent ships set on fire against the Spanish, which causes the Spanish ships to break their tight tactical formation. With the help of strong winds, the English then pinned the Spanish ships against the shore, and destroyed six Spanish ships in the longest and most intense artillery battle that had yet occurred at sea, much of it at close range. More than 1,000 Spaniards died during the long battle that day. | ||
| On May 23, 1618, a crowd of protestors carried a petition to Prague's Hradcany palace, where representatives of the royal government of Bohemia were gathered. The crowd stormed into the council chamber, engaged Catholic officials in a heated debate, organized an impromptu trial, and hurled two royal delegates from the window. The crowd below roared its approval of this "defenestration" ( an elegant term for throwing someone out a window), angered only that neither man was killed by the fall. | ||
| In Bohemia, backed by many nobles, he imposed significant limitations on Protestant worship. He was turned from Catholic Archduke to the Holy Roman Emperor. He then learned that the Protestant rebels had refused to recognize his authority and had offered his throne to Frederick. He then looked for outside help to drive Protestants from his realm by getting the king of Spain to send troops he could ill afford. The Catholic Maximilian I of Bavaria also sent an army hoping to also gain territory. He expelled Calvinist and Lutheran ministers and nobles from Bohemia who refused to convert to Catholicism and ennobled new men, including foreigners, as means of assuring Catholic domination. He confiscated the property of nobles suspected of participating in any phase of the Protestant rebellion. | ||
| He was promised the Bohemian crown by the Protestant Union, which revolted against the Church and the Hapsburg dynasty. He was the young Calvinist elector of the Palatinate and the most important Protestant prince in central Europe. In 1619, he was offered the crown by the Estates, which he accepted. In 1625, he led his troops into the northern German states, confident that the English and the Dutch, and perhaps the French as well, would rush to follow his leadership against the Hapsburgs. | ||
| In November 1620, the depressed, indecisive count from Flanders managed to defeat the main Protestant Union army at this brief but significant battle. | ||
| (ruled 1588-1648) As Protestant king of Denmark, he had ambition and money, but not a great deal of sense. Also duke of the northern German state of Holstein, the gambling, hard-drinking Dane wanted to extend his influence and perhaps even territories in the northern German states. He was unaware of the approach of a large imperial army commanded by one of the most intriguing figures in the age of religious wars. Since he had spent much of his personal fortune and bankrupted his kingdom during this ill-fated excursion, he signed the Treaty of Lubeck in 1629, whereby he withdrew from the war and gave up his claims in northern Germany. | ||
| (1583-1634) He was a tall, gaunt Bohemian noble, who, after marrying a wealthy widow, had risen to even greater fortune as a supplier of armies. Raised as a Lutheran, he converted to Catholicism at age twenty and became the most powerful of the Catholic generals. As an ardent student of astrology, he was ambitious, ruthless, and possessed a violent temper. His abhorrence of noise was obsessive, which was odd for a military person. Because he detested the sound of barking or meowing, he sometimes ordered all dogs and cats killed upon arrival of a town, and forbade the townspeople and his soldiers from wearing heavy boots or spurs or anything else that would make noise. Entrusted by Ferdinand with raising and commanding an army drawn from the myriad nationalities fighting for the Catholic cause, marched north with 30,000 men. | ||
| (1629) It allowed Lutherans, but not Calvinists who were few in number in the German states except in Palatinate, to practice their religion in certain cities, but ordered them to return to the Catholic Church all monasteries and convents acquired after 1552, when signatories of the Peace of Augsburg had first gathered. Because it also gave rulers the right to enforce the practice of their religion within their territories, the war went on. | ||
| (ruled 1611-1632) As Lutheran king of Sweden he was asked by England, the Dutch Republic, the northern state of Brandenburg, and the Palatinate to intervene on the Protestant side. The possibility of expanding Swedish territory, a kingdom of barely a million inhabitants, was more than he, who had an adventurer's disposition, could resist. Known as the "Lion of the North," who survived a shipwreck at the age of five, had been tutored in the art of war by mercenary soldiers. His courage was legendary. Influenced by an appreciation of Roman military tactics, he formed his battle lines thinner, about six men deep, than those of rival commanders. This allowed his battle lines to be more widely spread out. Superior artillery served his cause well, hurling larger shot further and more accurately than that of his enemies. The dashing young Swedish king subdued Catholic Poland with his army of about 70,000 men. Swedish intervention and the continuing woes of Spain, now at war in the Alps, Italy, and the Netherlands, gave Protestants reason for hope. He only enjoyed the support of several tiny Protestant states. | ||
| In 1631, the combined Protestant forces under Gustavus Adolphus defeated Tilly's imperial Catholic army at this place near Leipzig. | ||
| Gustavus led the largest army that had ever been under a single command in Europe against Wallenstein. Gustavus took a chance by fighting Wallenstein in the fog at this place in Saxony in November. The two sides fought to a bloody draw, but a draw amounted to a Catholic victory. Gustavus Adolphus fell dead in the battle, facedown in the mud, shot in the arm, back, and head. |
